May 26, 2008

Today we woke up bright and early thanks to DD. She came to bed early with us because she was freaking out and I was too tired to hear it so I gave in and fed her in bed with me and we all slept. She woke back up at 6:00 ready to eat again and then wouldn’t go back to sleep like she normally does. She was wide awake (through probably due to her full dirty diaper). I gave in and got up with her trying to let DH sleep some more. DH got up though about 45 minutes later. He said his 30 second naps weren’t cutting it. Of course after we get all ready for the day DD while lying on the bed fell asleep with only a couple bum taps from DH. So DH headed out in search of some breakfast for us to eat while DD slept on the bed. He brought back some yummy French toast for me and some corn beef hash for himself. It was very yummy. DD finally woke up so we packed up and head down to check out and hit the streets of San Diego.

The Marriott we stayed at was super nice and let us keep our bags there while we went out and the car longer without even charging us for the service. We walked down to Seaport Village which was a great little shopping/park area right on the water. We both want to go back there again and spend more time as a family vacation along with the rest of the San Diego. We walked (what we were told was only a 15 minute walk) for a half h

our to get there and then around the town and back. I think we walked a total of 1.5 hours. It was hot and then cold depending on if the wind was blowing.

Once back at the hotel we gathered our car and got our stuff and headed north to Orange County. While driving up the freeway we saw the temple and stopped so we could take pictures with DD. This is the 4^th temple she has seen in her life. I’m hoping to take her over to the Redland’s Temple while we are there so then she will have seen 5 of them. I feed DD in the car before taking the pictures but all she would eat were the apples/sweet potato food and spit/blew raspberries with the apple/blueberry mix. She use to love that stuff so that was frustrating especially getting sprayed with the food.

DD playing in the fountain out front of DH's brother's home.

We got back up to OC later than we wanted (longer walk, a few pit stops along the way, and traffic) and got to DH’s brother’s house around 3:00 or so. All the family down in

Cali (DH’s brother and 3 of his sisters) were gathered for a birthday party for two of DH’s nieces. There was a massive blow-up bouncer in the driveway and kids running everywhere. It was a lot of fun, despite the chaos. A little later we had hot dogs, chips, etc. and the girls opened their presents. We enjoyed visiting and seeing some nieces and nephews for the first time (since it’s been so long since we’ve been down here) and met one of my brother-in-laws for the first time too! It was a nice surprise that DH’s oldest niece happened to be home this weekend from college as well. All in all a busy, but fun day!

Getting some hugs from her little "big" cousin.

DH went out with the kids to play soccer in their side yard. Fun but cold for me.

We got all the siblings together for a picture.

I think I took 30 and this is the only one that turned out!

The backyard. I can't wait for it to warm up so we can go swimming.

Here's a video of DD taking some first steps with the help of her new favorite riding pooh train.

The Beautiful Sunset from the backyard!

May 24, 2008 (Saturday)

I can't believe I came all the way to "sunny" California and it's cold and rainy here. I didn't pack for this type of weather and I'm freezing! It's suppose to warm up next week and I sure hope it does!

Tomorrow we are heading to OC for church with DH's brother's family and then we are going to San Diego for the night to see my little sister. She drove out with a group of friends for Phoenix and I'm so excited to see her. I haven't seen her since Christmas and DD has changed so much since then. It will be a lot of driving and I hope DD will be able to handle it.

DD did horrible last night. She woke up at 2:30 and cried until 4:30. Her crying is really loud and it's hard to sleep through when she's in the same room as us. I think that's half the problem! I hope tonight goes better. I feel slightly bad since we aren't in our own place. I hate keeping everyone up but she has to learn that she can't sleep with us all night.

Here's a funny story from last night (Friday to Saturday):

Last night when DD first woke up DH brought her to bed to try to get her back to sleep when rocking her wasn't working. She fell asleep and then turned and was kicking DH in the face and then in the back. She literally kicked him out of his side of the bed and slept lengthwise. He was forced to sit at the end of the bed and tried to sleep that way. I woke up when I noticed he was trying to turn her or move her (that's what I thought he was doing). I moved my legs so he could take her to her bed more easily than going to the bottom of the bed. I told him he could have the bottom of the bed and he's said, "Ah, that's a great idea and proceeds to lay down to sleep at the end of the bed." I was shocked! I told him no that was for him to move her and so I went to pick her up and found that she had completely invaded his entire area. I picked her up and put her in the crib and she started crying. I honestly didn't care. I couldn't believe this 11-month old child of mine was kicking her daddy out of bed! That's just not right. I thought to myself that she could cry in her crib but he was going to have HIS bed! That's when she cried for 45 minutes. DH ran to the store to buy more Tylenol since we could find ours thinking that might help her with her ears but by the time he got back she had stopped which was good for him. He can't handle her crying (or sleep through it) as well as I can.

So throughout the day I still would burst out laughing at the thought of DH thinking it was a great idea to sleep at the end of the bed.

Today we mostly just talked and visited at Sean's house. His wife was sick in bed all day which was sad. Luckily I had to finish up the two purses I was knitting for our nieces' birthdays which we are celebrating on Monday. I first had to go to Micheal's Craft store to get another set of needles because somewhere from the plane to the house I lost one of them. They were out of the needle I need (bummer) but I was able to get a short pair that was the same size and thankfully they were long enough for my project. Zoe loved the purses so I decided to make her a small one out of my left over yarn. I started her's right before leaving for dinner and finished it only a little while after we got back to their house. Sean was shocked.

For dinner we met up with Sean's parents at Famous Dave's. We had to wait forever to get in and for our food but we had some yummy BBQ wings and mashed potoatoes. DD did really well considering how long we were there for. She ate half her bowl of mac 'n cheese and almost all of her mash potatoes.
















Mary read to the girls while we were waiting to be seated. I think she read through about 8 of our books. They loved the break in between all the waiting.

After dinner we walked over to Barnes and Noble to get a b-day photography book for DH's sister and found a few other treasures there as well. I just love book stores. I wish I had more money to buy more books especially for DD. She just loves books. I think they are her preferred form of entertainment.

May 25, 2008

Sunday morning we woke up and packed up all our things. I discovered that my deodorant went missing when all of the little cousin's came to the house for a party the day before. DH's uncle warned us that things might be missing. He was finding random things all over the house.

Once on the road DD fell asleep almost immediately. It was 9:30am so we figured we would get to David's by around 11am. Sadly they redid an interchange and DH took the wrong exit which placed us almost to San Diego. We then had to turn around and that doubled our trip time. It gave DD a 2 hour nap though. We finally made it to their house (a new one since the last time we were down). We barely had time to get ready for church. We took their oldest daughter with us to church with us. Their ward was getting switched that day so they were doing church backwards (RS/Priesthood, Sunday School, then Sacrament Meeting). It was fun seeing DH's sister Rene again. I talked with her a little during RS. I haven't' seen her for over 5 years. It was really interesting to see them split the ward. That area 6 years ago had only 300 members and today has over 1,000! Their ward filled the entire chapel and gym! It looked like it was Stake Conference instead of a ward meeting.

After church we changed clothes and headed down to La Jolla to meet up with my Sister. DD took another 1 hour nap too. We got there in about 45 minutes and she wasn't even back from the beach yet. We decided to head over to Rock Bottom where we were going to eat dinner and she just had them drop her off over there. My food was great (fillet Mignon, Bec got the same and I finished hers off too along with mine). Poor DH's pizza wasn't good but he ate it all anyway since he was hungry. DD was terrible during dinner and wanted to be held standing up. She wouldn't eat any of her noodles or fruit and only ate half my mashed potatoes. After we were finished eating and waiting the half hour for our bill and for them to pick it back up she got really happy and would finally sit.


After dinner we saw the group Bec was with (they too were eating there). It was nice to put a few more faces to names. We then headed down to the beach to see the ocean and some seals. The sun was setting when we got there. It was beautiful! It was cold though so we didn't stay long. DD loved the sound of the waves hitting the rocks. It was her first time seeing the ocean. She didn't even seem bothered by the cold temperatures. She is definitely her daddy's daughter.









We headed back to the car and drove a little further south down the ocean front and stopped to get out and see all the seals in the cove. Many were sleeping, two were kissing, two were riding the waves back in to shore, and a little baby was waddling around. It was so cute.


We went back to Bec's hotel room so she could shower. I fed DD and then DH and Bec headed to the store for some deodorant for me and dessert. While they were gone DD got a hold of a water bottle that I thought the lid was on all the way but the next thing I know I saw a puddle of water. She had shaken almost all the water out of it on to her lap and blanket. Silly girl. When they got back we played Uno and thankfully DD was very happy the whole evening. DH and drove to our hotel and DD fell asleep almost immediately which was great since it was 11pm. We checked in and headed up to the 12th floor. Our city view was of the brick wall of the building. The hotel is really neat since it's been converted from an old bank. They even have a vault room that's a meeting room. I unpacked and DH headed to bed and I stayed up a little and then put DD in her PNP.

Here's a video of DD playing "peek-a-boo" at Bec's hotel room.


Over all it was a wonderful day!